Share

Delays caused by this year’s election and the rumblings of the ongoing anti-dumping case may have slowed India’s annual PV installations for 2014 (forecast to come in at just over 800 MW), but a renewed urgency at the upper echelons of government and business promises to reinvigorate India’s solar sector next year.

State-run electric Utility NTPC  which has already pledged to invest close to $1 billion in renewable energy in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh  has this week announced that it is to install solar PV panels atop all of its thermal power plants as part of a 1 GW RE push over the next three years.

Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal confirmed to parliament that the plan will also include solar panel installation on all thermal plants currently under construction, plus a complete retrofit of NTPCs existing fleet.

Meanwhile, Coal India Ltd. (CIL), which is the largest producer of fuel in the country, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Solar Energy Corporation India (SECI) to develop 1 GW of solar PV plants across the country.

Goyal also confirmed this project during a written consultation at parliament, stating: "Recently, CIL has signed a MoU with SECI to install 1,000 MW of solar power plants in different parts of India, including Andhra Pradesh and Telengana."

With just 2.2 MW of solar PV under its belt, this agreement represents a sizeable solar commitment for CIL, and is indicative of the changing tide of attitude currently sweeping India, particularly since pro-solar PM Narendra Modi was elected to office in May.

Goyal has previously called both CIL and NTPC "massive polluters" that "must give back to the society", and will no doubt welcome these announcements this week.

Analysts expect clean energy investment in India to reach $100 billion in the coming years as the country transitions from polluting  and increasingly expensive  coal to solar and wind energy.

The Jawajarlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) is being constantly reviewed and updated to reflect developments in the fast-paced solar sector. Its success has helped India reach the 3 GW cumulative capacity mark this year, and should drive installations beyond 5 GW by the end of 2015, says Raj Prabhu of Mercom Capital.

"We are forecasting 2015 installations to double year-on-year, reaching approximately 1,800 MW annually," wrote Prabhu in this month’s December issue of pv magazine.

Prabhu also revealed that Indias Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is also working on a plan to "install a staggering 100 GW of solar in five years, a goal that Prabhu considers will prove challenging due to the vast amount of grid infrastructure investment required to make this feasible.

Ready to spend

However, at the recent climate talks in Lima, Peru, Indias Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar announced that the country has $3 billion in the kitty for investment in infrastructure upgrades and clean energy projects designed to reduce the countrys dependence on fossil fuel.

Javadekar added that Modi has given him the green light to spend even more than that. "We are investing, on our own, $100 billion in clean energy projects," he told the audience at the climate talks this week. "India is committed and ready to play its part in the international fight against climate change."

As the third-largest polluter globally after China and the U.S., India’s commitment to tackling climate is also a responsibility it must bear, but Javadekar warned that emissions will need to grow in line with economic expansion as the country fights to eradicate widespread poverty.

Hence, discussions around curbing emission limits were off the table, with Javadekar eager instead to publicize Indias efforts to switch to cleaner sources of energy. A $62 billion plan outlined at the talks revealed that $1.4 billion will be steered towards solar energy projects.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), India’s emissions are expected to rise by 34% by 2020, and perhaps even double from today’s levels by 2030.

Share

pv magazine

The pv magazine editorial team includes specialists in equipment supply, manufacturing, policy, markets, balance of systems, and EPC.

Related

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Keep up to date

pv magazine Global offers daily updates of the latest photovoltaics news. We also offer comprehensive global coverage of the most important solar markets worldwide. Select one or more editions for targeted, up to date information delivered straight to your inbox.

Email*

Select Edition(s)*

Hold Ctrl or Cmd to select multiple editions.

We send newsletters with the approximate frequency outlined for each edition above, with occasional additional notifications about events and webinars. We measure how often our emails are opened, and which links our readers click. To provide a secure and reliable service, we send our email with MailChimp, which means we store email addresses and analytical data on their servers. You can opt out of our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of every mail. For more information please see our Data Protection Policy.

Keep up to date

We send newsletters with the approximate frequency outlined for each edition above, with occasional additional notifications about events and webinars. We measure how often our emails are opened, and which links our readers click. To provide a secure and reliable service, we send our email with MailChimp, which means we store email addresses and analytical data on their servers. You can opt out of our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of every mail. For more information please see our Data Protection Policy.

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.